Man, do I love this movie. Mildred Pierce was nominated for Best Picture of 1945, and it represents a stunning achievement in several film genres: film noir, melodrama, romance, crime film, and the so-called "women's picture." Every member of the cast is first rate, with Joan Crawford as the title character demonstrating why she fully deserved the Oscar for Best Actress she won that year. It's one of my favorite movies from the 1940s, and I was delighted to watch it again for this project.
The film starts with gunshots and the death of Monte Beragon (Zachary Scott), Mildred's husband. We don't see the shooter, but Monte's last words are a cry for Mildred. Someone leaves the scene of the crime in a car, and then we cut to Mildred in a fur coat and hat walking along a pier, contemplating suicide by jumping into the ocean. She's stopped by a police officer and starts to walk away when an old friend, Wally Fay (Jack Carson), asks her to have a drink in his bar. She convinces Wally, who's always been attracted to her, to go with her to the beach house. He doesn't realize he's being set up as Monte's murder, so he goes along with her.
When the police show up, they discover the body, and they begin rounding up suspects and witnesses. Mildred is the one the lead detective waits to interrogate last. He first tells her that the police know that her first husband, Bert Pierce (Bruce Bennett), is guilty of the crime and that she doesn't have to answer any questions. Mildred, though, is desperate to share and so begins our first flashback to the events that have led to this night.
Wally and Bert were partners in a real estate business until Wally ousted Bert. Mildred, too, gets rid of Bert when she realizes that he's been having an affair with another woman. Needing to support herself and her two daughters, Mildred gets a job working as a waitress. She also bakes cakes as a side venture, and before long, she has ambitions to open her own restaurant. She gets some help from Wally and makes Mildred's a huge success. Soon she has opened several other branches and is making lots of money for her family.
I've not talked much about Mildred's daughters yet, but only one of them is truly a focus of the narrative. The younger daughter, Kay (Jo Ann Marlowe), is conveniently killed off by a bout of pneumonia. That leaves Veda (Ann Blyth), quite possibly the most ungrateful child in history. Mildred wants the best for Veda and is willing to go to any lengths to get the money to buy Veda whatever she wants, perhaps because she still fills remorse for Kay's death. Mildred will sacrifice her own dignity if it benefits Veda. For example, she won't let Veda see her waitress's uniform out of fear that she will think Mildred has degraded herself. Well, that's exactly what Veda feels, and she tells her mother so. How the daughter of a poor family and now a working single mother can be such a snob is a testament to just how much Mildred has spoiled her.
Mildred has other problems too. She's wooed by the man who owned the property that became the first Mildred's restaurant. That would be Monte, and they have fun for a while. However, she's not in love with him. She suspects that he has intentions regarding her daughter, and she warns him to stay away from Veda. He's also been taking money from her because she feels grateful to him for helping to get the restaurant business started, so when she pays him for what she claims is the last time, he says that he hates kitchens and cooks like herself. Mildred is back to being alone.
Then it's time to deal with Veda, who has become quite a monster with an appetite for expensive goods to match. Veda marries and then blackmails a wealthy young man by lying about being pregnant. Mildred disowns her, and Veda starts singing racy material in Wally's bar down at the pier. After realizing that Veda will only be happy with the trappings of wealth she's seen with Monte, Mildred asks him to marry. He agrees if he gets a share of the business, so Mildred once again swallows her pride and does something for Veda's benefit. However, it isn't long before Monte and Veda are having an affair--a rather kinky take on the notion of "incest" that you wouldn't expect in a film from this time period--and Monte and Wally are forcing Mildred out of business.
Periodically throughout these scenes, we get reminded that Mildred is in the police station answering questions. She even confesses to the crime, which only prompts the detective to start asking for more details. We get all of the necessary information about what happened the night of the murder, including the identity of the killer and the motive for the shooting. It's hardly a surprise that the culprit is Veda, who shot Monte in a fit after he said he would never marry her. When Mildred finally says, "I can't get you out of this, Veda" and calls the police, all you can do is add, "It's about time."
As I said earlier, the supporting cast is stellar. As much as you come to despise Veda, you have to admire the passion that Blyth brings to the part. She is excellent in a role that could have easily been over-the-top. Carson is just witty and relaxed her; he's the perfect opportunist, always looking for a way that an outcome could benefit him. Even Butterfly McQueen shows up as Lottie, Mildred's maid, and manages to get a couple of good lines in. And I love Eve Arden, who plays the small part of Mildred's restaurant manager and friend. No one could deliver a line like Arden could. One of my favorites is when she accuses Wally of undressing her with his eyes: "Leave something on me. I might catch cold." She's a delight whenever she's on the screen.
Still, it's Crawford's movie, and no one else could have played this part with the same go-for-broke gusto that Crawford brings to it. While she had been known before Mildred Pierce for her work in glamorous roles with expensive gowns and elaborate make-up, here she's allowed to look (almost) like a regular working class woman would look. There are still some shoulder pads in the business attire she wears at times--and I began to suspect that they get larger as the film's narrative progresses--but they are not the focus of Mildred's identity like they might have been in an earlier Crawford picture. Oddly enough, I think that Crawford is perhaps at her most beautiful in this film, despite not being costumed in expensive fabrics and jewels.
By the end of the film, we are, I think, completely on Mildred's side. Had it turned out that she was Monte's killer, I suspect most of us would have forgiven her. We would have understood what she has gone through in her life, and we would have allowed her a moment of anger and retribution for all of the pain that she has suffered. Not many actresses could make us feel that measure of sympathy, but Crawford was one of the best.
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